NATE ROBINSON TWITS APOLOGY FOR FAILING TO PAY TICKET LEADING TO SUSPENDED LICENSE

ARE TWEEPS CHANGING RULES OF MEDIA COVERAGE AND POLICE STOPS?

Twitter is deep.  It creates a quick personalized connection between the public and media personalities with the ability to take out and neutralize the middle-person, the mass media.  Now, with direct access between original sources and target audiences, the public can receive and individuals can transmit messages faster than the mass media  can keep up.  The mass media’s monopoly on the distribution of information is over.

Therefore, faster than Knicks beat writer Alan Hahn can sit at his computer after he gives his requisite judgmental head shake (see his twitter comment and blog verdict), Nate Robinson can issue the requisite media personality apology for a personal error or problem gone public (or is it “gone posted”).

Apparently Nate was driving with a suspended license (5th suspension) and did not know it because the ticket was mailed to his Seattle address and not his New York home.  As mentioned, only an hour after Nate’s tweet, in our comment section following the previous post, Nate was pulled over for what he believed at the time was tinted windows which happened to be rolled down. While pulled over, Nate complained about being held up  too long and being inconvenienced by the stop. Nate double tweeted:

nate_robinson Cops pulled me over cuz my windows were 2 dark(but my windows were down) lol how funny is that.. SMH about  . . .  from UberTwitter

nate_robinson Iam still pulled over and its been 35min they have me sit n in my truck like I dnt have s#*+ 2 do lolabout . . . from UberTwitter

Unfortunately for  Nate, he had a warrant out for his arrest for failure to appear or pay the ticket which was mailed to his Seattle address and not his New York home.  Nate was arrested and the Post picked it up immediately in its on-line edition.  The reports immediately took on a “here we go again tone” and highlighted his repeated failure to address traffic ticket problems.    Of course, embarrassed by the unexpected valid arrest, in the midst of finalizing contract negotiations, Nate responded quickly via twitter, not waiting for the next edition of the Post to come out. His next six tweets, at about midnight, stated:

nate_robinsonI thought it was for tinted windows but turns out I had an unpaid ticket and I wasn’t aware the ticket had been mailed to my Seattle addressabout 2 hours ago from web

nate_robinsonThis resulted to a suspended license.about 2 hours ago from web

nate_robinsonI apologize to the Knicks, my family and fans.about 2 hours ago from web

nate_robinsonI also want to thank the NYPD especially the arresting officer. He was fair and helped process me quickly.about 2 hours ago from web

nate_robinsonI promise to get this all cleared up.about 2 hours ago from web

An hour later,  a reflective Nate, tweeted,  “Well lesson learned pay all tix tweetpeople aight Shot out to my boy twill ves and dhud, stood by my side the whole time!! ”  Robinson  followed that tweet with  thanks to two friends who showed support throughout the entire ordeal: “To my tweetpeople that’s love, I thank yall 4 yalls support yall my tweeps 4 dat!! Tweeps up haters down”

With Nate’s media persona already established and solidified, by the New York beats, this incident, as any public error would, fell right into their profile of Robinson as an immature and irresponsible little man with over-sized talent.  Immediately the press magnified the severity of the issue and began speculating on how it would impact his contract status and opining about how forgetting to pay a ticket reflected on him. (This was before DMV records revealed he was a repeat offender).  Nate felt and responded to the press attacks immediately, again via Twitter. He wrote:

nate_robinsonthe media is try n 2kill my name and my image, but its cool only GOD can judge me now, they are make n it seem iam a head case not cool

nate_robinsonat the end of the day iam going prey [sic] to the LORD and ask him to show me the way 2 a beautiful heart and a powerful mind

This twit-episode (or is it twitasode) highlights the changing communication landscape, but it also demonstrates how the Internet can be used as a tool during challenging events such as a police stop.

Although Nate later apologized and called his tweets during the police stop irresponsible, tweeting after being pulled over was actually a reflexively smart move on his part as both a public figure and a driver stopped by police.  Nate’s tweets gave him a little more control of himself and the circumstances during and following the stop than he would have had otherwise.

By tweeting while stopped, Robinson revealed the police encounter before the press, therefore taking some of the surprise and sting out of subsequent reporting.  As we are learning, media personalities can neuter or minimize mass media accounts (often filled with biting false morality barely disguised as objectivity) of negative events by telling the truth as quickly as possible.  We most recently saw this when Rick Pitino held his press conference about his eatery foreplay and extortion after-sex-party.  Before that, when Basil Patterson became governor of New York  he quickly admitted that, similar to the previous Governor, he suffered from infidelity during his marriage although he didn’t pay to play across state lines.  By taking control of the story themselves, the media personalities reduced the shelf-life of the negative stories since reporters are always competing for the next new revelation.

Although, Nate was eventually proved wrong when he indignantly tweeted that the officer was holding him too long simply because he had tinted windows, the message to his tweeps worked in his favor.  It is unlikely that Nate was aware of the warrant out for his arrest for failure to pay a ticket.  If he knew that, it is unlikely he would have been critical of the officer who stopped him.  The earlier tweets lend a little credence to his claim that he was unaware of the warrant (although after three suspensions, you would think dealing with tickets promptly would be a priority).  Normal people, who are not sports reporters, know that traffic courts are filled with drivers who forget about tickets or court dates or have ticket notices mailed to the wrong addresses.  It is common for busy people or out-of-towners to forget about things like minor tickets, bills and dentists appointments. Contrary to media pretense, not attending a court date is not automatically a sign of evil-doing, incompetence or immaturity.  It happens and the perp (haha) eventually pays extra for not attending on minor matters.And Nate will pay the penalty.

Robinson’s pre-arrest tweets were also smart protection in the event of an invalid arrest.  Although, he now must admit an error because the stop led to a valid arrest, the incident certainly raises questions regarding why an officer would stop a driver before he knows that the driver has a suspended license.   Did the officer stop Nate because his windows were illegally tinted?  Did he stop Nate because he randomly checked Nate’s  license plate on the mobile data terminal  while following him  and saw that the owner’s license was suspended? Was the stop for another violation?  Was the stop based on how the passengers looked and the type of car they were driivng, before the officer actually knew that Robinson’s license was suspended?

Those questions often arise in the mind of a black driver pulled over for something other than a moving violation like running a red light, speeding or hitting a pedestrian.   As often as not, when the officer asks for your license and registration during a stop, he will not inform you of the violation, before he writes the ticket.  (A smart driver would have his license and registration ready when the officer approaches the car and ready to respectfully address the officer).  The uncertainty in the  interaction leaves the black driver a bit afraid that the officer will be unfair or contrive some minor offense in order to justify the stop.  Nate’s response to twitter demonstrates another way a driver can create a record and let friends know that he is engaged in an encounter with police.  The ability to gain quick contact to others during police encounters adds a new power to drivers who may soon be in police custody and disconnected from others at the discretion of officers.

Twitter also allowed Robinson to keep his cool at the scene.  Nate was smart to displace his disdain onto the internet as opposed to towards the police officer, an act which would have led to greater problems.  He was also smart not to tweet while talking to the officer, which may have been seen as an immediate and direct challenge to the officer’s authority. Nate was no Henry Louis Gates in this encounter — if the officer did not have a legit reason for an arrest, Robinson would have probably been on his way to his camp.

Nate’s unfortunate, but minor, encounter demonstrates the ability of new communication tools, such as Twitter, to allow individuals to regain a little more of their personal power from both corporate interests (mass media) and the State (police) (in Iran, Iraq and China that would be “police state”). You Go Twitter.